Phone Review: I Love The Huawei Y9 2019’s Impressive 4 AI Cameras

After the launch of the Huawei Y9 2019, I got a device for review and I have been having a ball with it, I have really gotten some great shots with it. Its quickly become my go-to device at events and I have posted more pictures on Instagram in the last week then I have for a long time.

There are so many things that impressed me about this phone.

Appearance

Let’s start with what you will find when you unbox your device. I got the beautiful midnight sapphire blue Huawei Y9 phone. At the back of the phone are the two main lenses and it also has a fingerprint reader for the face unlock feature. The phone is slightly curved at the back which makes it easier to handle.

The front side has a notched display with two selfie cameras. The slot for the sim cards and SD card are on the left and the charging port and earphones are at the bottom of the phone. But if you do not like the notch, there is software that can hide the notch and also change the screen resolution.

The Huawei has a glossy plastic finish, which is really stylish and which you can see through the clear cover that is provided.

The rear camera is 16 megapixels and 2 megapixels while the front camera is 13 megapixels and 2 megapixels. It comes with 22 different modes including portrait, blue sky and ancient building. The 2MP camera identifies and calculates the distance and works with the F1.8 aperture (50% more light compare to F2.2), so as to capture striking details.

Camera

The cameras are my favourite things about this device. The camera has AI cameras which enable it to look at what photos you are trying to take and optimize the camera settings to get a better picture. You can decide whether or not you want the AI cameras, and you can also disable it. The one disadvantage of the AI camera is that it can’t zoom in, so if you want to zoom in you must disable the AI Camera.
Left with AI Camera and right without

One of the awesome things is that the camera has modes so it recognizes people, food, plants and even animals. One thing I did notice when I took pictures of our cat is that it sometimes has an issue when it is taking two things at the same time. So our cat in the grass was sometimes showing cat mode and sometimes it was showing plants for the grass. Depending on that it changed how the picture came out as well.

One of my favourite things about this phone is how it takes awesome photos at night. One of the struggles I have had with camera phones is trying to take great pictures at night. The Huawei Y9 takes decent pictures at night and I was able to get some great selfies and performance pictures as well.

The way the AI camera works is that it automatically recognizes a scene and adjusts settings including light to give you the best image. The front camera has a 13MP lens and another 2MP for depth sensing. The front has 16MP and a second 2MP lens for depth. I think the night shots come out very well.

If you have a problem with taking selfies try the gesture motion which allows you 3 seconds before it takes your picture giving you time to take the perfect selfie.

If you are somebody who loves to play around with pictures and try different things you are sorted because there are different shooting modes including night (for taking those great pictures at night), aperture, Portrait mode, light painting, AR Lens, and PRO. The back camera 13MP + 2MP gives you great photos because of the intelligent scene recognition.

The phone is a bit bigger than the Camon X which I have been using. The display is 6.5 inch and it has a 19.5:9 ratio. The phone is a bit heavier than the Camon X but you will understand why as it is slightly bigger when you use it.

Storage

The Huawei comes with 4GB of RAM and it has 64 GB of internal storage which is better than the Tecno Camon X which has 3Gb of RAM and 16GB of internal storage which is a very big difference. I have not had to worry about immediately putting in an SD card as I usually run out of storage quite fast because of taking pictures and phones. If you need more space then you can still get some.

When it comes to performance, the Huawei Y9 (2019) is powered by a Kirin 710 processor and 4GB of RAM that do an excellent job at keeping everything running smooth. There’s 64GB of onboard storage which is also expandable via MicroSD. Additionally, the device does support Dual 4G standby, with the option of having VoLTE enabled on both SIM cards. There’s a fingerprint scanner on the back complemented by the standard face unlock.

For Entertainment

This is a great phone for gaming as it has an eye comfort 3.0 mode which adjusts brightness. I havent used it for gaming but I have used it to watch movies and I love the resolution. The sound is also on point.

Battery

I tend to go for a lot of events and I also tend to take a lot (and I mean a lot) of pictures of food for the blog and sometimes the biggest frustration I have is the battery life especially after taking videos. I like that the 4000 mAh battery that lasts for a long time even with heavy usage. I also like the fact that the y9 2019 has power saving mode but it also has an extra ultra power saving mode that extends your battery life by killing most of your applications. You can decide which apps you still want to be using when it is in this mode and you can access them.

The phone has something called Smart resolution. The camera switches the resolution between Full HD and HD so as to save power.

Face unlock or Fingerprint sensor

The phone has a fingerprint sensor and also face unlock for those who are security conscious. You can use whatever works for you. The face one is fast and effortless but you decide what makes sense for you.

Performance

The phone uses Kirin 710 which is pretty awesome performance wise for this type of phone. It is pretty fast and it doesn’t lag. It runs on Android Oreo 8.1, octa-core CPU and Kirin 710 which boost the phone’s performance by 75% compared to the previous generation. Also, the phone has a 4GB RAM and an internal memory of 64GB. It supports an external memory of up to 400GB. You have the option of enabling VoLTe on both SIM cards. Some of the other features include the WiFi bridge which turns your phone into a WiFi extender, screenshot gestures, and changing the screen resolution to save battery. It also has eye comfort (blue light filter) which I love when I am reading as it allows you not to strain your eyes when reading or watching something on the screen.

The phone only has one downside. It doesn’t have fast charge but this is compensated by the fact that the 4000mAh battery lasts a long time. You will be able to get at least 9 hours of screen time when the battery is full, although this can be pushed. If you are using data, wifi and brightness on it should give you at least 8 hours of screen-on time. The great thing is that it has an ultra battery saver so if you need to save power between times you are using it, it will be fine.

You can get the Huawei Y9 2019 at Jumia or at Telkom shops. The phone goes for Ksh. 24,990.